About Me

I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

The Lion’s Mouth by Anne Holt and Berit Reiss-Andersen translated by Anne Bruce

(22. – 864.) The Lion’s Mouth by Anne Holt and Berit Reiss-Andersen translated
by Anne Bruce (1997) – It is a quiet Friday evening in Oslo in early April of 1997. Wenche
Andersen has strict instructions not to interrupt Birgitte Volter, the Prime
Minister of Norway. Unable to leave before the Prime Minister she frets for over
an hour after Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Grinde has left the Prime
Minister’s office. More anxious to start her weekend than fearful of Prime
Ministerial wrath she enters the office and finds the Prime Minister dead from
a gunshot to the head.

The loud, profane, huge Billy T. of
the Oslo Police is the lead investigator. He is not a patient man yet his
reaction to being with the murder victim is striking:

As always when he found himself in close proximity to a
corpse, it struck Billy T. that nothing was as naked as death. Seeing this
woman who had ruled the country until three hours ago, this woman whom he had
never seen in the flesh but had encountered every single day on TV, in the
newspapers, and on the radio; seeing Birgitte Volter, the human being behind
the public persona, lying dead on her own desk, this was worse, more
embarrassing, and made him feel more self-conscious than seeing her without any
clothes. Billy T. turned away and walked down the stairs.

The police face challenge after
challenge in their investigation.

How did the killer gain access when Andersen
and security guards say no one entered the office after Supreme Court Justice
Benjamin Grinde?

In addition to being a judge Grinde
is also the chair of a committee investigating the disproportionate number of
sudden deaths of Norwegian babies in 1965.

In a somewhat surreal scene the
police arrest Grinde as he is about to make liver pate in his home. After a
quick conversation the police realize they have no evidence beyond Grinde being
the last person to see Volter alive and he is swiftly released.

Who would want to kill the Prime
Minister? As they start their investigation the police do not know whether she
was killed for a political reason or because of a personal vendetta.

There are so many potential killers
to be investigated. As well as Grinde they must look at her family, her
friends, her staff, those working in her office building, her political
colleagues and extremist right wing opponents of her Labor Party.

Classic Norwegian reserve hampers
the police. No one is forthcoming about anything. Relationships have to be
pried out.

As the investigation proceeds the
secrets of Volter’s life are gradually revealed.

Who will gain politically from her
death is not clear. The new leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister is
not an enthusiastic successor.

When the gun turns out to be an
antique Russian revolver there are yet more complications.

In their investigation the police
are extremely conscious of the bungled Olof Palme murder investigation by the
Swedish police 11 years earlier. There has never been a conclusive resolution
of that murder. As discussed in a post after my review of Killing Pilgrim there have been a series of theories on who killed
Palme. I continue to think that it was Christer Pettersson, who was charged by the
police and convicted before being freed on a successful appeal of his
conviction.

Because of the potential extremist
threat the Norwegian Security Services are involved. Billy T. expects they will
be parsimonious with information they collect during their investigation.

One of the Security Services staff
has a T-shirt with a perfect statement for describing an intelligence agent:

Bold
black letters across the entire front of the gray T-

shirt declared “I’ve got
your file.”

The Norwegian media have a
significant role in the story. Little Letvik is a skilled and unscrupulous
investigative reporter.

While described as a Hanne
Wilhelmsen mystery it is really Billy T.’s book. Hanne does not make an
appearance until almost 100 pages are gone. She is on leave in California with
her partner, Cecilie. Hanne returns to Norway to aid Billy T. but stays in the
background because she is not on duty.

A good book later became great when
I was blind sided by a credible development concerning the gun.

The ending was as powerful and
convincing a conclusion as I have read in a long time. For those who cannot
forgive the past is never gone. I was left sad but very glad I had read the
book.

One of the problems with crime fiction that has those political tones, Bill, (at least for me) is that it's easy to go over that line between credible and not credible. It's also hard to maintain the right sort of pace, and yet still develop characters effectively. I'm glad this one does it for you. And I do think Holt does a great job with drawing solid characters and giving a sense of context.